September 6th, 2009 Bonuses are back. That much became clear when the Royal Bank of Scotland, 70%-owned by the taxpayer, agreed a £9.7m package with its new-ish chief executive Stephen Hester (pictured above) in June. In August it emerged the bank is handing multi-million golden hellos to other staff. Recipients included bond trader Antonio Polverino, […]

January 23rd, 2009 The clutch of investment bankers who advised Royal Bank of Scotland, Banco Santander and Fortis on their joint €71bn three-way takeover of ABN Amro in 2007 have recently received vast bonuses for their part in the deal — even though it ended up destroying most of the banks involved. Merrill Lynch put […]

October 20th, 2008 (Note: this is the full, unedited version of an article commissioned by the Mail on Sunday on October 16, 2008. see published version here) SIR Fred Goodwin, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, seemed extraordinarily chipper and relaxed as he hosted a champagne reception for Scottish politicians, journalists and editors […]

October 18th, 2008 Last weekend, two brawling investment bankers nearly brought down the entire capitalist system. As the finishing touches were being put on the “Brown bailout” — which involves the nationalisation of three of Britain’s banks and whose supposed success has caused a spring in Gordon Brown’s step in recent days — well-padded bankers […]

July 7th, 2008 Dear Reader, This blog is now one year old. It’s been enormous fun writing the 58 entries to date — just over one a week — over the past 12 months and thank you for all the feedback received so far. Since I started this exercise on June 28th 2007, the business […]

By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald April 27th, 2008 RBS’s refunding move is the first step in UK banks waking up from their self-delusion to the reality of the credit crunch (first published on Herald Scotland) BRITISH BANKS, LIKE THE EMPEROR WHO WAS SO easily duped by his tailors, were suffering from chronic self-delusion at the […]

By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: December 10th, 2006 Analyst predicts 25 per cent hike in dividends as bank shelves acquisition strategy for organic growth BANKING: TRADING UPDATE ROYAL Bank of Scotland is expected to deliver a further 25 per cent hike in dividends and a further £1 billion in share buybacks alongside its […]

By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald November 27th, 2005 BANK CONSOLIDATION: ACQUISITION DRIVE FALTERS Sir Fred Goodwin turned the Royal Bank of Scotland into a global institution with an aggressive takeover policy matched by a strident rationalisation strategy . . . he bought big and cut deep. Now, with British banking out of favour with the […]

By Ian Fraser Sunday Herald March 20th, 2005 SHAREHOLDERS in the Royal Bank of Scotland should consider various options for enhancing the value of their shares, such as selling the Edinburgh group to Citigroup, a break-up including flotations of Coutts and Citizens, or even a leveraged buy-out. Analysts at Merrill Lynch last week said in […]

By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: October 3rd, 2004 Despite a drive by high street banks to corner the market in financial advice to the rich, independents still rule. By Ian Fraser IT seems like a no-brainer. Private banking, meaning looking after the banking and investment needs of Britain’s growing ranks of wealthier customers, […]